An alumna of Clarion West Writer’s Workshop for science fiction and fantasy, I’ve written for markets like The New York Times and Time Out New York. Currently, I write about sci-fi for Blastr. I also edit the humor competition for The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction. You can follow me on Twitter, Facebook, Google+, and here at Forbes.

Review, Aliens: Colonial Marines

After playing Aliens: Colonial Marines (ACM) I learned that the two sweetest words in the English language are “Checkpoint reached.” You’ll learn that too once you’ve crawled your way through each level, danger coming at you from every angle. You also learn to be acutely aware of every shadow, every ping on your motion tracker. But if you ignore even the—AUGH!

If you’re a fan of the Alien franchise, this game is a big deal. Not only because it’s the latest videogame based on the movie series, but also because it’s an official 20th Century Fox sequel to Aliens and Alien 3. But gamers should play it because ACM is a good (albeit not great) game. There’s enough dark, paranoid atmosphere here that my Aliens fangirl heart went pitter-pat with excitement.

In the first few minutes, we’re thrust into the aftermath of the 1986 movie (and the beginning of Alien 3. See this article for more background). As Corporal Winter, our mission to rescue the rescuers of Hadley’s Hope colony on planet LV-426 rapidly devolves, and it’s up to us to determine what happened.

We also get an intro by Corporal Hicks (Michael Biehn) and some interaction with the “whole” new Bishop (Lance Henriksen). For fans of the films and comic books, that alone is worth the price of admission to this shooting party.

The Plot: “A Few Deaths Were Involved”

Corporal Winters is a get-it-done space marine on board the Sephora, the sister ship of Sulaco, the ship from Aliens that is now inexplicably back in orbit around LV-426. Sephora is chocked to the brim with Semper-fi-Do-or-die types. No matter. We’re quickly winnowed from many to few.

Just as we’re trying to understand the depth of the mess we’re in, we rescue a marine, Bella, who says she woke up with some sort of alien wrapped around her face. But other than a sore throat, she feels just dandy. Uh-oh.

Soon after, we also encounter elements of “the company,” Weyland-Yutani, who want to bring the xenomorph back to Earth for study, because what could possibly go wrong?

Without giving away specifics, lest I incur the wrath of Gearbox and Sega, the broader story arc could have used some tweaking. There are more explanations than answers, and one pivotal moment didn’t quite make sense to me. The ending wasn’t completely satisfying. However, it could be setting up for a sequel, presumably in future DLC, of which four are planned. (Sega told me that at least one will be campaign content, but they’re keeping the dossier classified for now.)

Rather neatly, the opening cinematic plays out in the background of the main menu, showing the arrival of the Sephora and the boarding of the Sulaco. The game proper starts with a scene that we know occurred in Aliens but happened off-camera: Hicks’ distress call back to Earth.

Look and Feel: “It Looks Like Some Sort of Secreted Resin”

LV-426 is not a pretty place—and that was before the atmosphere processor blew. But Hadley’s Hope was built to withstand severe weather, so it’s more or less intact. All the environments are rendered with great attention to detail (especially for fans of Aliens). But be prepared for a lot of grim visuals painted in shades of black, charcoal, gray, and entrails.

We also get plenty of Gigeresque décor, and all the wonderful flesh-crawling unpleasantness that this entails.

A lot of the game is also very dark, deliberately so. At times, disorientingly so. Of course, this is true of the movie too (see the “coming outta the walls” slaughterfest under the atmosphere processor), so the game evokes its source material. But if you prefer to keep your bearings, you may find it frustrating. The game wants to push you out of your comfort zone.

The visuals are detailed at a distance, but some textures could use an upgrade close-up; they’re surprisingly coarse in places, particularly rocky surfaces in the outdoor levels. Also, the characters’ faces seem a bit stiff and rubbery—like the developers were using dated mo-cap technology. If Gearbox updates the textures, that’d be five-by-five.

The music, which uses the more familiar notes from the movie, is fantastic, shifting ably between the slower oh-god-we’re-going-to-die sections and the more frantic oh-god-we’re-actually-dying sequences. At times you really feel you’re in an Aliens film, and there’s no higher praise than that for a game whose purpose is serve you a plate of kick-ass.

And because I know some of you are bursting to know, yes, there is a Field of View (FOV) slider in the graphics options.

Gameplay: “Short, controlled bursts”

ACM is a military science fiction FPS, which means that much love has been poured into the upgradable guns. But because the marines in Aliens have no mini-map, no health bar that extends as the game progresses, and no way to upgrade armor, neither do you.

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I commented this to another user but I’ll copy and paste it to you in hopes you’ll read this.

The game was a total bait and switch. Everything the game should’ve been, could’ve of been was taken out and we’re left with a completely watered down version. The game is stale. It doesn’t excite or scare the player. The alien AI is rather disappointing. Rather than scaring the player, the aliens are more of a nuisance. They don’t do much other than run in circles.

For what it is, it’s completely playable. For something releasing in 2013, it’s disappointing. It feels like a game from 6 years ago.

Take a look at the YouTube video comparison of what the game was, and what the game is now. If you were promised something, and given something else worth much less than what you paid for, I’m sure you’d be unhappy too.

This review seems in stark contrast to the almost universal panning of A:CM. Others report buggy to non-existent enemy AI, objects disappearing/reappearing, and poor story cohesion.

Currently, A:CM enjoys a 49% metacritic score with a 4.5/10 user score. With an 8/10, that would put A:CM on par with Assassins Creed III (80% metacritic) to XCOM: Enemy Unknown (89% metacritic). A thirty-percent differential is a dramatically different experience, shared only with the Guardian.

Finally! :D a good review. Even as a diehard aliens fan, after reading so many negative reviews last night, i was really considering cancelling my preorder, but i pulled through. Even this morning. Many major game reviewers rated badly, but imo, the game doesn’t look that bad. Just waiting for the mailman to arrive so i can start playing

Your review is so far off I have to believe you received some kind of compensation. I’m an Aliens fan and was looking forward to this game more then anyone. I was disappointed to read all the reviews trashing the game and had hope after reading yours but the others were correct in their assessment. I’m couple of hours into the game and it is a hot mess. You called the AI decently smart. So far all the marines run around like chickens with their heads cut off. I will engage the enemy while they stare at a wall. The graphics are deplorable. Objects not that far away will appear blobby but as I get closer the graphics render themselves but takes a few seconds. I have never seen a game do this. The only good thing I can say about this game is the sound effects are spot on but I don’t play games for sound effects. If people still want to play this game I suggest waiting a couple of weeks as I’m sure the price will drop fast just like Duke Nukem Forever. It’s that bad.

Jack: I can absolutely, positively say in 100% certainty that I did _not_ experience anything of your–or some other reviewers’–problems with AI. In fact, I was extremely pleased with the AI. But had I encountered it, I would have given it a mention. Your points about the graphics are valid; I covered the problematic textures in my “Look and Feel” section. They didn’t bust the immersion for me, but yes, they should have been better.

I’m sorry that you had this problem. It sucks. If it means anything, I almost rage-quit Hitman: Absolution for endless crashes…but the game was patched before release. So I couldn’t even whine over and over again about the problem, because no one would understand what I was talking about.

I played the first mission of A:CM, on a 360, my buddies got 8 bugs (on Ultimate Badass difficulty) while I got 56 or so. They seemed at least competent.

The bugs AI, however, was weak. All following the same, exposed path, waiting a couple of seconds before putting in the killing blow (but still getting the blow in because of D-pad suckatude in trying to draw my pistol on the 360).

So far it’s not Borderlands, or B2, but it’s not Duke Nukem Forever either.